This is the manual of Studio 1.1.0, an earlier version. The manual of the latest version

Documentation 1.1.0 / User manual

Running a program and resuming

The Run workspace runs the loaded program and shows what the machine does while it cuts. When a run stops, Studio tells you the next step, and can start the program again from a line.

Loading and starting

To load a program into the machine, do one of these:

• File > Open program… (Ctrl+O): choose a G-code file. Studio reads it; it never writes your file.
• File > Example parts…: choose an example. Studio also sets up the blank, the tools and the work zero for it.
• In the Program workspace, Load and check (Ctrl+K) loads the program in the editor.

The machine bar then shows the program's name, its number of lines and about how long it takes.

To start it, press Cycle start (F5) on the machine bar. Cycle start is filled in when the program is loaded, the machine is idle and homed. If the program check found problems, the console says so as the program starts.

Before you run a program on a real machine, check it: Program > Check program sends it through the controller's check mode. The controller reads every line and the machine does not move.

Watching a run

While a program runs:

• the 3D view shows the tool, the trail of its tip and the workpiece as it is cut. Tool close-up shows the tool at the cut;
• the dock's Program tab shows the listing: the line being run is marked, lines done are lighter, and a bar shows each line's time. Follow the line keeps the line in sight;
• Program structure, beside the listing, splits the program into its sections and layers (from the program's comments) with their times;
• the right column shows the readings.

When the program ends, the Messages tab says how many lines ran and how long the run took in the simulation.

Progress and the time left

The machine bar shows the line being run out of all the lines, the share of lines done, and run and left:

• run is the machine time so far, in the simulation's time;
• left is the estimate for the rest, from the program's feeds and rapids.

After an alarm the bar shows the line the program stopped at.

The readings

The right column of Run, from the top:

• Position: each axis in work and machine coordinates, with a mark when the axis is homed. Under it, the modal line: the G-codes in force, the tool, the feed, the spindle speed and the M-codes. In an alarm, the spindle and the coolant show as the machine has them, and the program's values are in the tip;
• Spindle and feed: the spindle speed (the arc is the speed, the mark the speed asked for), the spindle's load (green up to 80 %, red over 100 %) and the feed;
• Cut (Engineer level and up): the twin's estimates of the cutting force, the power, the chatter margin and the feed per tooth;
• Overrides, Panel, Manual and Tools and zero (Operator level and up).

Click a section's title to fold it. In shop mode, Position also shows To go: the distance left in the current line, for each axis.

Feed hold, stop and overrides

• Feed hold (F6 or Space) slows the axes to a stop; the spindle keeps turning. Cycle start goes on.
• Stop (F7) holds first and resets the controller once the machine stands. Press it again to reset at once.
• Reset (F12) stops the program at once.

The overrides change the program's feed and spindle speed while it runs, from 10 % to 200 %:

Ctrl+0, or a double-click on a knob, puts the feed and the spindle back to 100 %.

Single block

Single block on the machine bar stops the program after each line. Press Cycle start, or Program > Next block, to run the next line. You can turn it on before you start or while the program runs; click it again to run on without stops.

Jogging and the handwheel

Jog in Run under Manual (it starts folded), or with the keys (see The keys for the machine).

• Step: 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 or 50 mm a press, or Hold to jog: the axis moves while you hold the key.
• Speed: 100, 300, 1500 or 3000 mm/min.
• The pad: X and Y in a cross, Z beside them, Stop jogging (Esc) in the middle.
• Handwheel: choose X, Y or Z and the increment (×1, ×10, ×100: 0.001, 0.01 or 0.1 mm a detent), then drag the dial or turn the mouse wheel over it.

You can jog only when the machine is powered, idle and not in an alarm, and no program runs. A held jog stops when you let go of the key or when the window loses the focus.

Tools > Settings… > Panel and devices > Handwheel sets how the handwheel behaves: Velocity stops the axis when the wheel stops; Path moves every detent.

Alarms and what to do

In an alarm the state on the machine bar turns red, and the bar shows:

• the alarm and what it means, for example ALARM:17 A motor drive reports a fault;
• Next step: what to do now, with the key that does it;
• All steps, when there is more than one.

Click the key, or use Machine > Do the next step, to do the next step. After each step, Studio works the steps out again from the machine's state.

The other signs of an alarm: a line under Position when the position can no longer be trusted, the red line in the listing where the program stopped, and a label at the drive in the 3D view.

The alarms, their causes and what clears them: Alarms.

The steps back to work

All steps opens the steps back to work: the cause, then the steps in order, each with its key and why it is needed. The step to do now is marked. One click does only the next step.

For example, after a drive alarm (ALARM:17):

1. Press the E-stop, cut the drives' power (F1): a drive's alarm clears only when it loses power.
2. Release the E-stop (F1).
3. Power on (F2): the drives have power again.
4. Reset (F12): the controller keeps ALARM:17 after the drives recover.
5. Home (F3): the power was off, so the position is not to be trusted.

When the fault was injected in Diagnostics, the cause says so, with the time.

When an alarm stopped a program, the steps end with the line to start again from, for example the start of the layer it stopped in.

Starting again from a line

Studio can start a program from any line. It writes a start block that sets the machine up as the program would have it at that line, then runs the rest.

1. Stop the program. The machine must be powered and no program running.
2. In the Program tab of the dock, right-click the line and choose Start from line …, then OK. In the editor, right-click the line's margin or press Shift+F10. Result: Studio loads "name (from line n)". It does not start it.
3. Press Cycle start.

The start block:

1. lifts Z to the top;
2. sets the units, the plane, the distance mode and the work offset the program had at that line;
3. changes the tool, if the program had changed it before that line;
4. turns on the coolant and the spindle at the program's speed, and waits for the spindle to come up to speed;
5. moves over the start point at a safe height, goes down to 2 mm above it, then feeds down;
6. goes on with the program from that line.

The preview check then checks the rest against the workpiece as it is.

Trying the start on a copy first

After an alarm stopped a program, the steps end with Preview the start…. It opens the start block and its notes.

1. Click Try on a copy. Result: the start runs on a hidden copy of the machine, from the workpiece as it is, and Studio reports its time, any collision, the highest chatter margin and how much it removed.
2. If it looks right, follow the steps back to work, then start from the line.

Running with the simulation's speed

The twin runs in real time. Simulation > Speed runs it from ×0.5 to ×50 real time. The clock on the machine bar shows the simulation's time, the speed you chose and the speed the computer reaches.

Simulation > Pause the simulation, or the hourglass on the machine bar, stops the twin's time: nothing changes while it stands. Cycle start goes on. Breakpoints and pause conditions in the editor stop the twin's time the same way (see Programs and the editor).

Pausing the simulation is not a feed hold: the machine's state is frozen, not stopped.